If a) you are equipped for self-spotting, and b) you have a signal. Its surprising how often you have a signal down in the valley and nothing at all on the summit. Isn’t it unfortunate the way these councils of perfection keep butting up against grimy reality!
All is not lost, though, if there is no signal - there are still those keen chasers who take pride in getting the first chaser spot out!
We’re out there in the long grass hunting for you…
Brian
Yes, if the summit has mobile phone coverage…
I am finding this discussion interesting because of the comments on how people use the system. I tend to make decisions about band and mode once on the summit, and so I often dither over what to put in the alert. I usually put one nominal freq / mode statement, and a free text “maybe other bands and modes too”. Maybe that isn’t very helpful of me! From a chaser point of view, is it better to specify a band that I might use, but then don’t, or pop up on a band for which I didn’t alert?
(One reason for placing an alert, is so that RBNHole might spot me on CW. In this case, the content of the alert is not important)
If someone is alerting for 5 bands and 4 modes, I wonder how long they are going to be on the summit? If they plan to be there for hours might it be more helpful to split the data into several time specific alerts?
If they intend to operate for just a few minutes on each band / mode, would an additional tick box for “quickie activation” be useful, so that chasers can decide whether to join the queue etc?
I like the idea of extended fields, drop down selections, tick boxes etc. All good stuff. And could the time format be changed from hhmm to hh:mm as it is (I think) on all the other places where SOTA services use a time field? It still catches me out occasionally!
Many thanks to everyone involved in planning, implementing and supporting the many great online SOTA tools, much appreciated.
73
Adrian
G4AZS
I challenge you to show me a summit that doesn’t have coverage for spotting: Think Sat Phone before you answer!!
Absolutely! 
Well done.
73 de Pedro
Possibly Mount Erebus, though you will have to wait a while before we slot that one into an Association!
Brian
PS If I could afford a satellite phone, I’d spend the loot on a new rig!
My satellite spotter cost me £188.
After ten years of watching my pension shrink in real terms, I think as carefully about any penny spent as a good Scot!
Well as Old Father Time keeps adding turns onto your coil, you don’t do too many really wild summits anymore so it’s not something you need. However £100 on 23in monitor may be money well spent. Or if you are feeling more flush, a 24in one. Unless your laptop pre-dates Lady Ada, it should drive a monitor and its own screen at the same time giving you a window just for SOTAwatch and another to do whatever else on.
OMG Compton,
All very well for drive- to-the-AZ summits but I have to look at everything twice and ask can I get by without it before setting out on a walk. A sat phone is one box too many.
I’m surprised that there is acceptance that these days no one reads upload instructions and it’s OK to ignore them and make stuff up. ? Force them to eat cake!
It seems to me that for any activation it would be advantageous to post several alerts if many modes and band combinations are planned. They would give better time indications and preferably exact frequencies.
Times and frequencies are very important to me when in Chasing or S2S mode. With declining propagation it is more efficient to set the rx on the activator’s nominated frequency and wait if in the shack. Some activators are early but most seem to be late and I try to adjust for this.
If there is no alert I assume you are not activating and I’ll plan to do other things if at home. When activating I rely on the alerts for the general planning for S2S and for when I have no phone coverage. If I have phone coverage then the Spots become important.
If the system can be made better without becoming more time consuming then I’ll vote for that.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Actually I have one already! It was money well spent, too, though I have a sneaking feeling that there may be benefits that I have not tapped yet… Anyway, its gathering dust while I wait for my son to install a replacement PSU in the computer that it goes with, then I’ll be back up to date - or at least, back up to 2015!
I have never, ever, had a laptop … and i neither need nor want one.
I thought nowadays people use only tablets and smart-phones.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
That did make me Laugh out Loud…
They are a bit steep to buy and use but DeLorme Inreach GPS units are not too pricy, are very good GPS for walkers/outdoor use and include Iridium messaging(sends a normal SMS to phones) for not much money at month. I think we have about 10 SOTA activators using them now.
Amazon sell them for £280
They are money well spent even if driven by old and slow computers. 23in (1920x1080) are much, much cheaper than 24in (1920x1200) models. I’ve seen them new for about £85 but 24in models are nearer £300 when I looked last.
For 95% of my activations I am alone, by myself, with no body else. In the Australian bush you have no excuse for not carrying a PLB and sat phone to cover emergency events, Police Rescue almost beg people to do this and will lend you a PLB for free. Biggest and simplest threat is getting hit big time by a Joe Blake (snake), if that happens putting up an HF antenna is out so you need a guaranteed method to call for help = sat phone. Plus I can spot with it.
Anyway I am way off topic so I’ll retire and charge the batteries on my $15 AUD a month sat phone.
Compton
VK2HRX
I’ll bring this back on topic. There is much to commend in reducing the free form of alerts. The chances of changes to the current Sotawatch are very slim simply because it is old code that is hard to maintain and we want to kill it dead. There is work in progress on a new Sotawatch using the new website style and that may incorporate some of these ideas and may have a real time chat facility. It’s not ready yet. There will be an API that will be open to allow anyone to write apps/webpages that will be able to spot and alert they way they want.
The ideas will be taken on board so the API is flexible and the presentation will be down to the individual programmers.
I’d like to go on record as categorically opposing the inclusion of real time chat. I think real time communication should be limited to RF communication and we should not compromise the challenge of making a SOTA QSO.
I realize I’m assuredly in the minority on this one - not the first or last time for that 
73, Barry N1EU
It happens already Barry, but in a clumsy way via the reflector, or through a misuse of the spotting facility. A live chat window would tidy that lot up. And you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. Passing of QSO details this way will, of course, invalidate the QSO, and in this format, will be very easy to spot - and so I’d suggest it generally wouldn’t happen.
As Tom says it’s happening now. It should mean fewer bogus spots containing false frequencies with comments like “please do 40m”. If users start QSPing reports it gets restricted.
I’m with you Barry.
A chat will spoil some of the fun of SOTA.
One day we will a have a SOTA “using cellphone frequencies” or IP addresses ? 
73 de Pedro, CT1DBS